According to most post-debate polls, Democrat candidate Kamala Harris has increased her slight lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump by a few percentage points both on the national level and in key swing states. The remaining months of the campaign will see the two US presidential candidates fight to sway the undecided voters.
What’s different this election cycle is the appearance of a new group of these undecideds – pro-Ukraine Republicans who voted for Nikki Haley in the primaries and who support Republican Congressman Mike McCaul’s demands on the administration to immediately remove all restrictions on strikes deep within the territory of the aggressor state using American weapons.
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Harris realizes the key to her victory is to bring this group of voters to her side. She has spent a huge amount of advertisement money in swing states, touting her support for Ukraine and attacking the Trumps (both father and son) over their blatantly traitorous remarks on the war, as well as Republican vice president nominee J.D. Vance and that disgraced offspring of the Kennedy clan, RFK Jr.
But this powerful, focused campaign strategy is being undermined as we speak by sheer stubbornness on the part of Grandpa Biden, who keeps dragging his ancient feet in lifting the ban on strikes within Russia’s interior using American weapons.
This may all change, thankfully, next week in Washington – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to arrive with his Plan for Victory. These high-level meetings may prove decisive, not only for the outcome of the US election but – and this is much more important – for the global conflict waging throughout the world as well.
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Experts are divided on the purely military aspects of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but no one can deny it has had an enormous political and psychological impact. Both Washington and Moscow have now completely altered their perceptions of the war. A significant portion of the US political establishment now believes Ukraine can really win this war.
In August, a bipartisan congressional delegation met with Zelensky in Kyiv and negotiated the general parameters of this Plan for Victory (the elimination of red lines on using American weapons and the delivery of a substantial number of state-of-the-art fighter planes flown by volunteer Western pilots). In the run-up to Zelensky’s visit, McCaul and his colleagues have been lobbying hard for the plan in Washington.
In Moscow, the powers that be continue their relentless hunt for those opposing the war, punishing them for social media posts or even a stray “like.”
However, after Ukraine’s Kursk incursion, Russian President Vladimir Putin has gained a potentially much more dangerous adversary, namely his previous base of support – the Z-patriot community. This group is now condemning the president, not for starting an illegal war but for, in their view, beginning to lose it.
The Z-military correspondents post constantly on their Telegram channels and video blogs. But now, alongside their usual criticisms of “Ukrofascists” and the accursed West, we are seeing angry exposes about rampant theft in the military, the incompetence of military leaders, and the harsh treatment of subordinates. Muted suspicions that “The tsar is not real!” are beginning to grow louder.
The entire saga with Prigozhin, who remains popular with the Z-patriot community, reminds us how quickly sentiments such as “[Sergei] Shoigu is a stupid ass! [Valery] Gerasimov is such a jackass! Where is our ammunition?” can result in a military uprising and a march on Moscow.
In a desperate attempt to prevent the White House from removing those red lines to make things easier for Ukraine, Putin is again resorting to that favorite weapon of terrorists the world over – blackmail. We are now hearing almost daily from the Kremlin that if Ukraine is permitted to conduct strikes deep within its territory, Russia will consider itself at war with all of NATO.
But Zelensky made himself perfectly clear at a joint press conference in Kyiv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sept. 20. He first addressed directly those close to Biden who are urging him to give in to Putin’s blackmail. Zelensky had in mind, of course, CIA Director William J. Burns, who made a secret verbal agreement with Putin in Moscow in November 2021. In essence, Burns is continuing to fulfill this treasonous 2021 agreement with Putin to this day.
Zelensky also made sure to mention that in addition to his meetings in Washington with Biden, Harris and Trump, he will meet with the Congress as well. And on the eve of his departure, Zelensky gained yet another powerful ally in his quest to pressure Biden – Europe. The vast majority of the newly-elected European Parliament has called for all restrictions on strikes deep within Russian territory using Western weapons to be lifted.
We have every reason to believe that these restrictions will be lifted by the end of the week. As a result, Putin will become victim number one of his own blackmail. So, he announces he is at war with NATO? Great, Vladimir Vladimirovich! Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
But I have a feeling that won’t happen against an alliance with vastly superior conventional weapons. Especially considering French President Emmanuel Macron has already politely pointed out that France, too, has nuclear weapons.
The Z-patriot community will surely be most disappointed in its one-time “vozhd.” [a Slavic word meaning “the leader” – ed]
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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